The following excerpt is taken from an essay written by Music Bridge trainee, Catherine Quinn, as a reflection on her experiences as a community music workshop leader-in-training.

My colleagues and I are engaged to work with a mixed group of 10/11 year old boys and girls on a community music project. The workshops are about making connections, inspiring potential, and bringing hope where there is none, through music. It is my wish for the group to function at its fullest potential and enjoy the creativity and beauty that arises out of this. This journey of growth and development that we are all on together reminds me of the metaphor of the caterpillar turning into a butterfly.

Many little butterflies fluttering around in our community music activities, all with their own flight paths, all unique, colourful, vibrant and beautiful in their character and expression. It was beautiful and yet so chaotic and unpredictable. The students all had different values, beliefs, realities, and yet we as their facilitators had to design a strategy and a plan that would enable and unite the group as a collective through musical connections. I wondered at times how we would bring about togetherness, unity and connection amidst such chaos. The truth was and is obvious, we are all the same, all connected.

Being a butterfly myself, I know too well that the struggle of the butterfly inside the chrysalis is a part of the strengthening of its wings. This struggle of the butterfly assists the blood flow throughout the wings so that the butterfly will be able to fly. In the struggle there is the hope. For me this encapsulates Musicians Without Borders aims, we want to encourage the growth in everyone so all may fly, we also have to watch the struggle and encourage the effort needed to transform from where we are to something more.